One of my favorite back to school writing activities is to have my students write about themselves. What kid doesn’t like to go on and on about their likes, dislikes, family, and hobbies? I’ve taught for 9 years and have yet to meet a kid who didn’t want to take the time to share about their favorite person: themselves. This… Read More

I slump down at the table in the middle of my academic coaches’ room. I wasn’t just exhausted from the day, I was already exhausted in anticipation of today’s team meeting. Today wasn’t just about our upcoming plans for next week (which I still needed to do!) or a new professional development goal we need to add to our year-long… Read More

So what’s sweeter than all the chocolate that students bring you on Valentine’s Day and also doesn’t go straight to your thighs? Having those same sweet kiddos write about their sweetest acts! I love doing this writing activity around Valentine’s Day and it’s always a hit! I mean what kid doesn’t want to make a giant chocolate kiss complete… Read More

The first week back after Winter break is always a hard one… the kids are not *quite* back in the routine of school, and let’s face it… neither is the teacher! We started the week off with a complete review of all our classroom expectations and procedures. Before break, we were getting a little lax on our classroom policies. Even… Read More

If you teach in a Common Core (or fake CC state like I do) then you are very familiar with the idea of “responding to text” and “close reads”. These ideas seem to be fixtures on my lesson plans and although we’ve been slowly working on a routine with these two practices, we really didn’t hit a breakthrough with text… Read More

Something amazing happened this year… somewhere between learning how to do multiplication and our weekly close reading sessions… My class became writers. You heard me right… WRITERS! For realsies, folks. Every time I turn around, my kiddos have notebook paper on their desks and they are writing. They’re writing stories, poems, chapter books, information booklets. I can barely contain my… Read More

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